PASIR PUTEH, March 10 — The local media have gathered at the Tok Bali Maritime 10 base which the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is using as a search and rescue centre (SAR) for passengers and crew of the missing MH370 aircraft.
Bernama observed that members of the electronic and print media had been arriving since 10 am today to follow developments of the SAR operation.
MMEA assets appeared to be in readiness for deployment and at 1.30 pm, one of its patrol vessels was seen heading towards the South China Sea.
Yesterday the MMEA found an oil slick about 100 nautical miles off Tok Bali. MEA director-general Maritime Admiral Datuk Mohd Amdan Kurish said samples taken by the agency’s vessel KD Amanah at 11 am yesterday had to be sent to the Chemistry department in Petaling Jaya as Kelantan and Terengganu did not have the facilities to analyse them.
Meanwhile, MMEA Eastern Region chief First Admiral Datuk Nasir Adam has disclosed that the samples were not from the missing aircraft.
The samples were actually from a ship, he told the media at the agency’s headquarters in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan today.
The Malaysia Airlines’ aircraft carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew to Beijing disappeared from the radar about an hour after leaving the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41 am on Saturday.
An aerial survey over 70 to 100 nautical miles off the coast of Terengganu, Kelantan and Thailand border and Vietnam, found no leads to the missing aircraft.
–BERNAMA
